DAPL Updates: Petitions, a Rally, Carpools and More

MPR reports that the water protectors (pipeline protesters) are bracing for a confrontation with la enforcement. Those officers involved in confrontations and arrests could include sheriff’s deputies from Hennepin, Anoka, and Washington counties — inappropriately sent — in response to a request for assistance from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department in North Dakota.

We wrote on blog on this yesterday. Here are updates and resources.

First, it is important to know that there are multiple camps with different leaders. The Sacred Stones Camp is on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, just south of the Cannonball River. The Oceti Sakowin Camp (the main camp) and the Red Warrior Camp are just north of the Cannon Ball River, and have federal permits to be there. A northern camp is near the site of current pipeline digging, on land owned by the pipeline company. The confrontation will happen in and around the northern camp.

Petitions and Phone Calls: There a petitions and Action Alerts circulating, including this one from Honor the Earth. It includes a petition and a request for Hennepin County residents to call their county commissioners and demand that Sheriff Rick Stanek recall the deputies sent to North Dakota. Residents from Anoka and Washington counties could make similar calls to their county commissioners. Moveon.org also has a petition. 

Emergency Noon Rally Today: Stand With Standing Rock, Stop Hennepin County’s Militarized Involvement

Today at Noon at the Government Plaza Light Rail Station, people will gather in support of the Water Protectors opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. They also are opposing the deployment of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies to the Water Protectors Camp near the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

Here is the Facebook Post for the event. It says in part:

Standing Rock needs us now more than ever, especially given the deployment of Special Ops from Hennepin County and two other counties. Faith Leaders and residents of MN are outraged by the deployment of Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department forces to North Dakota to take part in the hyper-militarized and violent repression of peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline.

Here is a link to Honor the Earth’s petition, asking Hennepin County residents to call Sheriff Rick Stanek and their County Commissioners and tell them to pull county support for the armed intimidation and arrests of peaceful protesters. Please consider signing. It reads in part: